Free Because

Free Because…
By Marian Flores

One day, you came across a store. Nothing particularly fancy, just a regular store that happened to catch your attention. The host of the store is a cloaked figure and standing next to him is one other man. As you walk up to the store, the cloaked figure tells you that everything in the store is free. Your taken back and wondered if the guy was serious or not. You look at the other man; He nodded and said “for you they are”. So you went ahead and started with the simplest things; like white lies and blasphemy. These free things didn’t seem so bad, and after a while you decide to go back to the store. The cloaked figure seems glad that you’ve come back and says that there are more free things in store for you. You look back at the other man in the store, He seems tired and weary but again He states “for you they are”. You soon moved on to other things concerning deceit, cheating, and stealing.

For a while, it seems like you just can’t get enough. It wasn’t long till your back at the store smiling at the cloaked figure, but when you look at the other man; He’s been lashed from the front and back. You question why this had happened, and the cloaked figure simply answers that the man owes him something in return. The cloaked figure then asks if you had wanted anything else. You ask again if these things really are free, and the other man slowly repeats “for you they are”. So pushing His image out of your head, you go for the drugs, drinking, and fighting never knowing how deep you’ve gotten yourself into. It comes to the point where it has become an uncontrollable habit.

The last things on display in the store were adultery and death, but before you talked to the cloaked figure, you take another look at the other man…He’s been crowned with thorns and is carrying a cross. The cloaked figure reveals himself as the devil and tells you to go on and take the last freebies… you suddenly feel this pain n your heart, and you cant seem to stop the tears from running down your face… as if moving automatically, you take adultery and the man, Jesus, is slowly being nailed to the cross…For some reason, you feel ashamed and shocked… you drop all the free things you received, knowing that they were free for you because Jesus had paid the price…You want to give it all back, but the devil says no returns, you can’t undo what’s done…He urges you to go ahead and take the last one… death… and you scream at him for making you play this immoral game. He smiles and shakes his head, he then points at Jesus and said that it was your sins that had caused the downfall of this man…Anger, sadness, hate, shame, and all these other emotions just rush at you. You feel like talking back to him but no words came out… you falter and chose to hold your tongue…How else were you supposed to answer when you know everything he just said was right?You ask out loud if there was another way…The devil says the only other thing for free in this store is Him… (Jesus). You look up at Jesus and said… “I’ll take him…”

The devil closes the store to moves to some other place where more people would want free things and your left with Jesus on the cross. You kneel before Him and hugged the cross and you can’t help but cry, apologizing and wishing you could turn back time… Jesus slowly gets off the cross and holds you in His arms... He cries along with you, says that He loves you and that you are forgiven...

See how much He loves you for He paid the price of your sins?
In the end, you’ll see the only real thing left that’s real was His love…THE END!!! =D